In mid-2020, the world merchant fleet comprised 45,887 ships over 1,000 GT with a deadweight tonnage of 1.99 billion dwt, which were in international service for shipowners from 140 countries and registered in 150 flag states. At the same time, the global shipping scene is essentially dominated by a few countries in terms of ownership and registration. The three leading shipping nations (Greece, PRC and Japan) controlled almost half of the tonnage of the world merchant fleet, while the three leading flag states (Panama, Liberia and the Marshall Islands) accounted for almost 44% of the transport capacity.
Also interesting is the geographical distribution of the fleet: while no country located in Africa, Central/South America or Oceania, with the exception of Bermuda, was among the top 30 owner countries; almost half of the global fleet capacity was registered in open shipping registers of these regions, especially in Liberia, Panama, the Marshall Islands, the Bahamas or Antigua & Barbuda. By mid-2020, the deadweight tonnage of flagged-out ships was 1.49 billion dwt, which is 75% of the total transport capacity of the world merchant fleet. Thus, almost 90 % of the German merchant fleet - still the fourth largest shipping nation - operated under foreign flag, with Liberia accounting for almost 41 % of the tonnage. While all other leading shipping nations flag out the majority of their ships, China stands out with a very high share (71 %) of ships under its own flag - especially when including the Hong Kong register.
https://www.isl.org/en/news/huge-market-dominance-the-leading-shipping-nations
2020/12/15 11:55:23